Handwriting is rarely seen in works of electronic literature, or on the screen at all. Dan Waber's delightful Strings presents a scrawl that has a life of its own, embodying certain human activities (arguing, flirting, laughter) in the form of animated lines of handwriting that pull themselves into the shape of ideas.
Author description: The author quotes Jim Andrews's description: "Strings is a playful series of Flash pieces about relationships. It also raises questions about the presence/absence of the hand in this medium. Visual artists often criticise the lack of presence of the hand in digital art. In Strings, the hand is and is not present, is transformed, is transforming, is writing, is written, coded. Tis morphed."
Instructions: Select a string to view from the menu. Strings does not require any action from the user.
Previous publication: Strings was published by Waber in July 1999, http://vispo.com/guests/DanWaber/.
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
This Flash work has been emulated with Conifer by the Electronic Literature Lab in March 2021. To view this emulation click here.